Quote:
Originally Posted by Cape Cod Todd
What is going in America right now.
If you are an illegal alien that snuck into the country that is OK
If you are a criminal that is OK.. if you have done your time.
If you are a convicted non violent drug dealer that is OK we are letting you out of prison early.
If Hillary lies and lies that is OK because she will stop it when she is in the White House.
If you are a drunk or drug user that is OK it is a mental health problem.
Obama is now pushing a campaign to "Ban the Box" which is an attempt to ban the box one would check on a job application if they were convicted of a felony and served jail time. The idea being is if that box is checked the application gets passed by and why not? Why should a excon get the same treatment as someone who has kept their nose clean? There is a thread about this in the current events category right now.
I think it is fine to forgive and forget to a point but I would want to know who I'm hiring to work in a possibly critical area.
What is going on in America where the victim is forgotten and the criminal gets a second chance. Are we getting soft on crime because that is all we see and hear about when we turn on the news?
What we need is more focus on stopping people from getting in trouble with the law in the first place.
I believe there should be enough incentive for a person to stay out of trouble and not get arrested. This incentive should start at home and be enforced in school. People go on and on about evil guns but those are the tools of the desperate. If people were better educated and had respect for each other we wouldn't have as much crime.
The Debate:
Do you think there should be a broad sweeping forgiveness program for the convicted felons that served their time such as the Ban the Box idea OR should we look at each individual case as it is presented?
Is America getting soft on crime and criminals?
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First of all, America is not soft on crime. We have longer prison sentences than basically all of our European counter parts, as well as substantially more prisoners here in the land of the free.
As for ban the box, I don't know; I see both sides. An employer has every right to know certain details about their employees history, but I'd say an applicant also has some privacy rights as well as shouldn't be immediately dismissed, as is often the case when people check 'yes' to the felony question.
Fun fact: most felons will never get into a professional career. They likely will always have a **** job. This means their kids will probably be in the same boat and we'll have 3 million incarcerated Americans as opposed to the 2 million we have now, which again, "land of the free."
Regardless of this, why do we have so many felons? Poverty is usually the answer. If we have less poverty, we have less criminals. That's not exactly a revolutionary idea either; this type of thing has been talked about since before the 20th century. But poverty also acts as an excellent form of social control and since generally a state can either spend on military development (power) or on public services (humanity), the good ol' US government has elected to spend on the former. I agree that prevention should be discussed, but sadly, we have an entire party that is devoted to making sure those programs stop existing. I'm not some welfare shill; it has negative impacts to but the solution is not to eliminate them entirely. Let's face it, people who have the resources to get an education and pursue a career in a field they give a damn about are less likely to deal drugs.
As a side note, I think all drugs should be decriminalized, and certain ones made legal (like pot or psychedelics). Those who use drugs like heroin and form addictive tendency should be enrolled in a program, not incarcerated. Prison needs to be reserved for truly destructive behavior, like violence or generally disregard for other people. And in order for prisons to be worth our tax dollars, I think rehabilitation and future prevention needs to be valued over punishment. Besides, in my view, the loss of freedom is a punishment on its own.
As for forgiveness, I don't exclude anyone from the possibility. As to what that means, it varies. I'm willing to forgive a child porn addict, but I would probably never trust them to open up a day care. But if they want to be my accountant, by all means.
Ultimately, we need to actually address the poverty problem in our country and reform our justice and education system. 'Ban the box' is basically surface level and does absolutely nothing to deal with the underlying problems in our society.
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